The legal thriller is a subgenre of thriller and crime fiction in which the major characters are lawyers and their employees. The system of justice itself is always a major part of these works, at times almost functioning as one of the characters. In this way, the legal system provides the framework for the legal thriller much as the system of modern police work does for the police procedural.

Usually, crusading lawyers become involved in proving their cases (usually their client's innocence of the crime of which he is accused, or the culpability of a corrupt corporation which has covered up its malfeasance until this point) to such an extent that they imperil their own interpersonal relationships and frequently, their own lives.

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Thriller (genre)
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Thriller is a broad genre of literature, film and television, having numerous subgenres. Thrillers are characterized and defined by the moods they elicit, giving viewers heightened feelings of suspense, excitement, surprise, anticipation, successful examples of thrillers are the films of Alfred Hitchcock. Thrillers generally keep the audience on the edge of their seats as the plot builds towards a climax, the cover-up of important information is a common element. Literary devices such as red herrings, plot twists, and cliffhangers are used extensively, a thriller is usually a villain-driven plot, whereby he or she presents obstacles that the protagonist must overcome. Homers Odyssey is one of the oldest stories in the Western world and is regarded as a prototype of the thriller. Thrillers may be defined by the mood that they elicit. In short, if it thrills, it is a thriller, as the introduction to a major anthology explains, Suspense is a crucial characteristic of the thriller genre. It gives the viewer a feeling of pleasurable fascination and excitement mixed with apprehension, anticipation and tension and these develop from unpredictable, mysterious and rousing events during the narrative, which make the viewer or reader think about the outcome of certain actions. Suspense builds in order to make those final moments, no matter how short, the suspense in a story keeps the person hooked to reading or watching more until the climax is reached. In terms of expectations, it may be contrasted with curiosity. The objective is to deliver a story with sustained tension, surprise, the second type of suspense is the. anticipation wherein we either know or else are fairly certain about what is going to happen but are still aroused in anticipation of its actual occurrence. According to Greek philosopher Aristotle in his book Poetics, suspense is an important building block of literature, common methods and themes in crime and action thrillers are mainly ransoms, captivities, heists, revenge, kidnappings. Common in mystery thrillers are investigations and the whodunit technique, common elements in dramatic and psychological thrillers include plot twists, psychology, obsession and mind games. Common in horror thrillers are serial killers, stalking, deathtraps, elements such as fringe theories, false accusations and paranoia are common in paranoid thrillers. Threats to entire countries, spies, espionage, conspiracies, assassins, the themes frequently include terrorism, political conspiracy, pursuit, or romantic triangles leading to murder. Plots of thrillers involve characters which come into conflict with other or with outside forces. The protagonist of these films is set against a problem, no matter what subgenre a thriller film falls into, it will emphasize the danger that the protagonist faces. While protagonists of thrillers have traditionally been men, women characters are increasingly common

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Crime fiction
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Crime fiction is the literary genre that fictionalises crimes, their detection, criminals, and their motives. It is usually distinguished from mainstream fiction and other such as historical fiction or science fiction. Crime fiction has multiple subgenres, including fiction, courtroom drama, hard-boiled fiction. Suspense and mystery are key elements that are ubiquitous to the genre. In Italy people commonly call a story about detectives or crimes giallo, better known are the earlier dark works of Edgar Allan Poe. Wilkie Collins epistolary novel The Woman in White was published in 1860, french author Émile Gaboriaus Monsieur Lecoq laid the groundwork for the methodical, scientifically minded detective. The evolution of locked room mysteries was one of the landmarks in the history of crime fiction, the Sherlock Holmes mysteries of Arthur Conan Doyle are said to have been singularly responsible for the huge popularity in this genre. A precursor was Paul Féval, whose series Les Habits Noirs features Scotland Yard detectives, the best-selling crime novel of the nineteenth century was Fergus Humes The Mystery of a Hansom Cab, set in Melbourne, Australia. The evolution of the print mass media in the United Kingdom, like the works of many other important fiction writers of his day—e. g. Wilkie Collins and Charles Dickens—Arthur Conan Doyles Sherlock Holmes stories first appeared in form in the monthly Strand magazine in the United Kingdom. Later a set of stereotypic formulae began to appear to cater to various tastes, Crime fiction can be divided into the following four branches, The cozy mystery, a subgenre of detective fiction in which profanity, sex, and violence are downplayed or treated humorously. The whodunit, the most common form of detective fiction, the historical whodunnit, also a subgenre of historical fiction. The police procedural, the detective is a member of the police, the forensic crime fiction, similar to the police procedural. The detective the reader follows is usually a medical examiner or pathologist—they must use the evidence left on the body. This subgenre was first introduced by Patricia Cornwell, the legal thriller, the major characters are lawyers and their employees, and they become involved in proving their cases. The spy novel, the characters are spies, usually working for an intelligence agency. The caper story and the novel, the stories are told from the point of view of the criminals. The parody or spoof When trying to pigeon-hole fiction, it is difficult to tell where crime fiction starts

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Lawyer
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A lawyer is a person who practices law, as an advocate, barrister, attorney, counselor or solicitor or chartered legal executive. The role of the lawyer varies greatly across legal jurisdictions, in practice, legal jurisdictions exercise their right to determine who is recognized as being a lawyer. As a result, the meaning of the lawyer may vary from place to place. In Australia, the lawyer is used to refer to both barristers and solicitors. In Canada, the word lawyer refers to individuals who have been called to the bar or. Common law lawyers in Canada are formally and properly called barristers and solicitors, however, in Quebec, civil law advocates often call themselves attorney and sometimes barrister and solicitor in English. The Legal Services Act 2007 defines the activities that may only be performed by a person who is entitled to do so pursuant to the Act. Lawyer is not a protected title, in India, the term lawyer is often colloquially used, but the official term is advocate as prescribed under the Advocates Act,1961. In Scotland, the word refers to a more specific group of legally trained people. It specifically includes advocates and solicitors, in a generic sense, it may also include judges and law-trained support staff. In the United States, the term refers to attorneys who may practice law. It is never used to refer to patent agents or paralegals, in fact, there are regulatory restrictions on non-lawyers like paralegals practicing law. Other nations tend to have terms for the analogous concept. In most countries, particularly civil law countries, there has been a tradition of giving many legal tasks to a variety of civil law notaries, clerks, and scriveners. Several countries that originally had two or more legal professions have since fused or united their professions into a type of lawyer. Most countries in this category are common law countries, though France, in countries with fused professions, a lawyer is usually permitted to carry out all or nearly all the responsibilities listed below. Arguing a clients case before a judge or jury in a court of law is the province of the barrister in England. However, the boundary between barristers and solicitors has evolved, in England today, the barrister monopoly covers only appellate courts, and barristers must compete directly with solicitors in many trial courts

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William Bernhardt
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William Bernhardt is an American thriller/mystery/suspense fiction author best known for his Ben Kincaid series of books. Bernhardt has sold more than 10 million books in the US and he has been nominated for the Oklahoma Book Award seventeen times in three different categories and has twice won, in 1995 and 1999. In 1998 he received the Southern Writers Guilds Gold Medal Award, in 2000, he was honored with the H. That same year, he was presented with a Career Achievement Award at the 2000 Booklovers Convention in Houston and he has also been inducted into the Oklahoma Writers Hall of Fame. In 2009, he received the Royden B. Davis Distinguished Author Award from the University of Scranton and his poetry has received two Pushcart Prize nominations and an Oklahoma Book Award nomination. He has also received a Certificate of Recognition from the American Academy of American Poets, Bernhardt is best known for his series of novels featuring idealistic attorney Ben Kincaid. Library Journal called him the master of the courtroom drama and he has also written several novels outside the series, including the nonfiction novel Nemesis, The Final Case of Eliot Ness. His other series character, Susan Pulaski, appears in the novels Dark Eye, Bernhardt is also one of the nations most in-demand writing instructors. He founded the Red Sneaker Writing Center, which hosts a writing workshop each year in Oklahoma. He also provides a free Red Sneaker e-newsletter and a free Red Sneaker phone app which he updates regularly with a blog on writing and he has also written the nonfiction Red Sneaker series on writing. In addition to his work as a writer and teacher, Bernhardt and his published books. He has published books by acclaimed authors such as Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist N. Scott Momaday, Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter Janis Ian, the primary focus of the company, however, has been to provide a publishing venue for the unpublished. Bernhardt published the first novel by P. C, cast, now known for her highly successful House of Night series of young adult novels. He is on the Board of Directors for the Writers Colony at Dairy Hollow in Eureka Springs, a former trial attorney, Bernhardt has received several awards for his pro bono work and public service. In 1994, Barrister Magazine named him one of the top 25 young lawyers in America and he lives in Oklahoma with his wife, Lara Bernhardt, the novelist and audiobook narrator, and their children. On October 10,2013, Bernhardt became a Jeopardy, champion, fulfilling a lifelong dream of appearing on that quiz show

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Michael Connelly
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Michael Connelly is an American author of detective novels and other crime fiction, notably those featuring LAPD Detective Hieronymus Harry Bosch and criminal defense attorney Mickey Haller. His books, which have translated into 39 languages, have garnered him many awards. Connelly was the President of the Mystery Writers of America from 2003 to 2004, Connelly was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the second oldest child of W. Michael Connelly, a property developer, and Mary Connelly, a homemaker. According to Connelly, his father was a frustrated artist who encouraged his children to want to succeed in life and was a risk taker who alternated success with failure in his pursuit of a career. Connellys mother was a fan of crime fiction and introduced her son to the world of mystery novels, at age 12, Connelly moved with his family from Philadelphia to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, where he attended St. Thomas Aquinas High School. At age 16, Connelly’s interest in crime and mystery escalated when, on his way home from his work as a hotel dishwasher, Connelly, curious, decided to investigate and found that the object was a gun wrapped in a lumberjack shirt. After putting the gun back, he followed the man to a bar, later that night, Connelly brought the police down to the bar, but the man was already gone. This event introduced Connelly to the world of police officers and their lives, impressing him with the investigators’ hard faces, Connelly had planned on following his father’s early choice of career in building construction and started out at the University of Florida in Gainesville as a building construction major. After earning grades that were lower than expected, Connelly went to see Robert Altman’s film The Long Goodbye and was enchanted by what he saw, the film, based on Raymond Chandler’s 1953 novel of the same name, inspired Connelly to want to become a mystery writer. He was a student of Harry Crews, there, he covered the crime beat during the South Florida cocaine wars, an era that brought with it much violence and murder. The honor also brought Connelly a job as a reporter at the Los Angeles Times. He moved to California in 1987 with his wife Linda McCaleb, after moving to Los Angeles, Connelly went to see the High Tower Apartments where Raymond Chandlers famous character, Philip Marlowe, had lived, and Robert Altman had filmed. Connelly got the manager of the building to promise to him if the apartment ever became available. Ten years later, the manager tracked Connelly down, and Connelly decided to rent the place and this apartment served as a place to write for several years, but its value derived more from nostalgia than comfort. After three years at the Los Angeles Times, Connelly wrote his first published novel, The Black Echo and he sold The Black Echo to Little, Brown to be published in 1992 and won the Mystery Writers of Americas Edgar Award for best first novel. Connelly describes his own work as a big canvas with all the characters of his books floating across it as currents on a painting, sometimes they are bound to collide, creating cross currents. This is something that Connelly creates by bringing back characters from previous books, Connelly went on to write three more novels about Detective Bosch — The Black Ice, The Concrete Blonde, and The Last Coyote — before quitting his job as a reporter to write full-time. Harry Bosch and Connelly received a deal of publicity in 1994

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Marcia Clark
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Marcia Rachel Clark is an American prosecutor, author, and television correspondent. She was the prosecutor in the O. J. Simpson murder case. Clark was born in Alameda, California, the daughter of Rozlyn Kleks and Abraham Kleks and she was raised in an Orthodox Jewish family. She has a brother by six years who became an engineer. Due to Abrahams job with the FDA, the family moved many times, living in California, New York, Michigan and Maryland. She graduated from Susan E. Wagner High School, a high school in the Manor Heights section of Staten Island, New York City. She graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles, in 1976 with a degree in political science, Clark was admitted to the State Bar of California in 1979. She was in practice and worked as a public defender for the city of Los Angeles before becoming a prosecutor in 1981. She worked as a deputy district attorney for Los Angeles County, California, Clark is best remembered as the lead prosecutor in the 1995 trial seeking to convict O. J. Simpson for the double murder of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman. Prior to this trial, her prosecution was in 1991. In his book Outrage, The Five Reasons Why O. J. Simpson Got Away with Murder, Clark said that the media attention she received during the trial was the hell of the trial, calling herself famous in a way that was kind of terrifying. Initially described as grim, humorless, even angry by the media, Clark was advised by a consultant to talk softer, dress softer. She subsequently received a permanent wave, and the Los Angeles Times described her as looking like Sigourney Weaver, the New York Times commented that The transformation was not entirely seamless. At times Ms. Clark lurched between her new and former self, showing signs of formality and stiffness. Resigning after the O. J. Simpson case, Clark left trial practice behind, with Teresa Carpenter, she wrote a book about the Simpson case, Without a Doubt, in a deal reported to be worth $4.2 million. Since the Simpson trial, Clark has made appearances on television including being a special correspondent for Entertainment Tonight. She provided coverage of trials and reported from the red carpet at awards shows such as the Emmy Awards. She was a guest attorney on the television series Power of Attorney and was also featured on Headline News

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Vish Dhamija
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Vish Dhamija is a British Indian crime-fiction writer who lives in the UK. He is frequently referred to in the press as the master of legal crime, in a survey by eBooks India website, Vish Dhamija was listed along the top 51 Indian authors you must follow. Dhamija grew up in Ajmer, Rajasthan, where he spent the first twenty years of his life and he attended St. Anselms School, a convent school in Ajmer established by the Rt. Rev. Dr. Fortunatus Henry Caumont O. F. M. in 1904, Dhamija dropped out of law school after his first year, and then attended Jodhpur University for a degree in Management. After a few years of working in the world in India, he left for Manchester Business School in the UK for an MBA in Marketing. In school, Dhamija was very active in literary and stage activities and he was the lead actor in most of the plays hosted in school. He was also captain of the house, Dhamijas first book, Nothing Lasts Forever, was published in 2010 by Srishti Publishers, it was long-listed for Vodafone-Crossword Book Award 2011. A crime thriller, the book is based in the locality of Worli in Mumbai. The setting of the book is Bhendi Bazaar in south Mumbai, since it was first published, the book has remained on Amazon Indias Top 100 list for Crime, Thriller, and Mystery and has been noted for its ingenuous plot and rich characters. Dhamija has said in interviews that crime fiction, which is mainly what he reads, is the genre in which he can imagine himself writing for the time being. In August 2015, Déjà Karma became a bestseller and was featured on both The Financial Express and Crossword Bookstores lists for two consecutive weeks. His next book, Doosra – The Other One was released in Feb 2016, Dhamijas fifth book - Nothing Else Matters was launched at the Kumaon Literary Festival in October. In November it reached number 6 on WH Smith charts on both, domestic and internation airports in New Delhi, bloggers rated it as one of the top 10 books by Indian authors in 2016 and top 10 romance novels of 2016 by Iindian authors. Harper Collins india will be releasing Dhamijas next book, Unlawful Justice in mid-2017 and he and his wife, Nidhi live in the UK

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Kenneth G. Eade
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Kenneth Gordon Eade is an American environmental and political activist and author, best known for his political and legal thrillers. Eades novels are unique, in that they are based on solid research and they are entertaining, but also educate readers about their civil liberties. His latest novel, Paladine, is currently a quarter-finalist in the Publishers Weekly BookLife Prize in Fiction, kenneth Eade attended the Honors Program at El Camino Real High School, which allowed him to attend classes at Los Angeles Pierce College at the age of 15. By the time he graduated high school in 1975, he had amassed over two years of transferable credits. He graduated from California State University, Northridge with a B. A. in Liberal Studies in 1977, after graduating from Southwestern, he practiced civil and criminal law for about a decade, then went into business law with an emphasis on securities law, and civil litigation. Kenneth Eade and photographer Valentina Eade were married on July 31,2010 and they currently live in the South of France, where they give symposiums on the importance of bees to the environment. Eade practiced law for thirty years, is known as an environmental and political activist, and has quoted as an expert on genetically engineered foods, homeowners associations. The benchmark of Eades novels is that they are based on current events that affect our daily lives and he has written fifteen novels which have been translated into four languages, eleven of them are self-published and one, A Patriots Act, is published by Tate Publishing

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Erle Stanley Gardner
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Erle Stanley Gardner was an American lawyer and author. The best-selling American author of the 20th century at the time of his death, Gardner also published under numerous pseudonyms, Fair, Kyle Corning, Charles M. Green, Carleton Kendrake, Charles J. Kenny, Les Tillray and Robert Parr. Born in Malden, Massachusetts, Erle Stanley Gardner graduated from Palo Alto High School in 1909 and he was suspended after approximately one month when his interest in boxing became a distraction. He returned to California, pursued his education on his own. In 1912, Gardner wed Natalie Frances Talbert, they had a daughter and he opened his first law office in Merced in 1917, but closed it after accepting a position at a sales agency. In 1921, he returned to law as a member of the Ventura firm Sheridan, Orr, Drapeau, and Gardner, Gardner enjoyed litigation and the development of trial strategy, but was otherwise bored by legal practice. In his spare time, he began writing for pulp magazines, in his early years writing for the pulp magazine market, Gardner set himself a quota of 1,200,000 words a year. When asked why his heroes always defeated villains with the last bullet in their guns, Gardner answered, if you think I’m going to finish the gun battle while my hero still has fifteen cents worth of unexploded ammunition in his gun, you’re nuts. Early on, he typed his stories himself using two fingers, but later dictated them to a team of secretaries, under the pen name A. A. Fair, Gardner wrote a series of novels about the private detective firm of Cool and Lam. In another series, District Attorney Doug Selby litigated against attorney Alphonse Baker Carr in an inversion of the Perry Mason scenario. Prosecutor Selby is portrayed as a courageous and imaginative crime solver, Gardner remained with Sheridan, Orr, Drapeau, and Gardner until 1933, when The Case of the Velvet Claws was published. Much of that story is set at the historic Pierpont Inn, in 1937, Gardner moved to Temecula, California, where he lived for the rest of his life. With the success of the Mason series, which ran to over 80 novels. Gardners readership was a broad and international one, and included the English novelist Evelyn Waugh, Gardner also created characters for various radio programs, including Christopher London, starring Glenn Ford, and A Life in Your Hands. He created Perry Mason as a character for a series of Hollywood films of the 1930s, and then for a titular radio program. In 1954, CBS proposed transforming Perry Mason into a soap opera. When Gardner opposed the idea, CBS created The Edge of Night, in 1957, Perry Mason became a long-running CBS-TV series starring Raymond Burr in the title role. Though Burr originally auditioned for the role of district attorney Hamilton Burger, Gardner reportedly declared he was the embodiment of Perry Mason, Gardner made an uncredited appearance as a judge in The Case of the Final Fade-Out, the last episode of the series

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John Grisham
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John Ray Grisham, Jr. is an American bestselling writer, attorney, politician, and activist best known for his popular legal thrillers. His books have been translated into 42 languages and published worldwide, John Grisham graduated from Mississippi State University before attending the University of Mississippi School of Law in 1981. He practiced criminal law for about a decade and served in the House of Representatives in Mississippi from January 1984 to September 1990 and his first novel, A Time to Kill, was published in June 1989, four years after he began writing it. As of 2012, his books have sold over 275 million copies worldwide, a Galaxy British Book Awards winner, Grisham is one of only three authors to sell 2 million copies on a first printing. Grishams first bestseller, The Firm, sold more than seven million copies. Eight of his novels have also been adapted into films, The Chamber, The Client, A Painted House, The Pelican Brief, Skipping Christmas, The Rainmaker, The Runaway Jury. Grisham, the second of five siblings, was born in Jonesboro, Arkansas, to Wanda Skidmore Grisham and his father worked as a construction worker and a cotton farmer, while his mother was a homemaker. When Grisham was four years old, his family settled in Southaven, DeSoto County, as a child, Grisham wanted to be a baseball player. Grisham has been a Christian since he was eight years old, after leaving law school, he participated in some missionary work in Brazil, under the First Baptist Church of Oxford. Although Grishams parents lacked formal education, his mother encouraged him to read and he drew on his childhood experiences for his novel A Painted House. Grisham started working for a nursery as a teenager, watering bushes for US$1.00 an hour and he was soon promoted to a fence crew for US$1.50 an hour. He wrote about the job, there was no future in it, at 16, Grisham took a job with a plumbing contractor but says he never drew inspiration from that miserable work. Through a contact of his fathers, he managed to work on a highway asphalt crew in Mississippi at age 17. It was during this time that an unfortunate incident got him serious about college, a fight with gunfire broke out among the crew causing Grisham to run to a nearby restroom to find safety. He did not come out until after the police had detained the perpetrators and he hitchhiked home and started thinking about college. His next work was in retail, as a salesclerk in a department store mens underwear section and he decided to quit but stayed when he was offered a raise. He was given another raise after asking to be transferred to toys, a confrontation with a company spy posing as a customer convinced him to leave the store. By this time, Grisham was halfway through college, planning to become a tax lawyer, he was soon overcome by the complexity and lunacy of it

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David Kessler (author)
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David Kessler is an English author of mystery novels and thrillers. With the exception of A Fool for a Client, his novels were set in Britain. His new series of books is set in the Bay Area of California and centres on a series of recurring characters including the lawyer Alex Sedaka and his latest series, published under the pseudonym Adam Palmer, introduces the character of Daniel Klein, an expert on ancient Semitic languages. Kessler was born to a Jewish family in London, England, shortly thereafter, he wrote a screenplay that he showed to his mothers cousin, movie director Clive Donner. Although never produced, the screenplay made Kessler realise that he wanted to become a writer, Kessler began writing at the age of 15 when he dropped out of school, but it wasnt until he was in his late thirties that he secured a publishing contract from Hodder Headline. The title is an allusion to the aphorism that anyone who conducts their own defense “has a fool for a client. ”In the novel. The book was reviewed by Susanna Yager in the Sunday Telegraph and this was followed by The Other Victim about the stabbing of a teenager and the disappearance of a billionaire in what turn out to be linked cases. The London Sunday Express wrote of this book, “The pace is fast, characters convince, however after his next two books, Tarnished Heroes and Reckless Justice, he was dropped by Hodder during a slump in publishing. At that same time, he courted controversy by co-writing a book about the murder of Rachel Nickell called Who Really Killed Rachel. With Colin Stagg the man who had falsely accused of the murder. The book—which was published in 1999 by small publisher Greenzone, after the major publishers turned it down—named Robert Napper as one of four credible suspects. Nine years later, Napper pleaded guilty to manslaughter due to diminished responsibility for the crime, after new DNA technology, Kessler wrote an ebook The Wimbledon Common Murder updating his earlier work on the subject. Kessler made a comeback in 2009 when he signed a three book deal with the Avon division of HarperCollins UK for a series of books about a San Francisco lawyer, Alex Sedaka. Prior to that, a version of Mercy, the first book in the series. However, it was not picked up by HarperCollins through Autonomy, rather it was sent to HarperCollins by Kesslers agent and picked up through the conventional channels. Mercy is about Sedakas race against time to save a client on death row after the client declines an offer of clemency from the governor. The entire book takes place in a 15-hour time-frame and was described by James OBrien on LBC as “a cracking thriller. ”No Way Out is about Sedakas defence of a black neoconservative talk show host on a charge of raping a girl in a cause celebre that has America bitterly divided. Kessler – who lists Dan Brown as one of his influences – adopted the pen-name Adam Palmer to signify the change of style, Kessler has also written and published eBooks in other genres such as science fiction, childrens literature and chick-lit

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Paul Levine
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Paul Levine is an American author of crime fiction, particularly legal thrillers. He has written two series, known generally by the names of the protagonists, Jake Lassiter and Solomon vs. Lord and his novels have been translated into 21 languages. Born in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, Levine graduated from Pennsylvania State University in 1969 and he received his J. D. from the University of Miami in 1973. A lawyer before becoming a writer, he was a partner at Morgan, Lewis & Bockius and a legal commentator on television. One of his characters was Jake Lassiter, an ex-Penn State linebacker and lawyer. The interaction between the law partners has been described by Bookreporter. com as “reminiscent of the very best of David and Maddie in Moonlighting. ”The Chicago Sun-Times review of Solomon vs. Lord declared, Remarkably fresh and original with characters you cant help loving and sparkling dialog that echoes the Hepburn-Tracy screwball comedies. To Speak for the Dead was listed as one of the ten best mysteries of the year by the Los Angeles Times, cannell and starring Gerald McRaney as Lassiter. Levines novel, Illegal, featured Jimmy Payne, a down-on-his-luck Los Angeles lawyer who is caught up in a human trafficking scheme. Calling the book a “riveting read, ” Booklist noted, “The portrait of the dangers and predations that Latinos face crossing the border is chilling, Levine also wrote 9 Scorpions, a thriller set at the Supreme Court of the United States. He wrote 21 teleplays for the series, which aired from 1995 to 2005, Levine and Bellisario also co-created the 2002 CBS drama series First Monday, starring Joe Mantegna as a new U. S. Supreme Court justice and James Garner as the chief justice

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Phillip Margolin
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Phillip Margolin is a writer of legal thrillers. Phillip Margolin was born in New York City in 1944, after receiving a B. A. in Government in 1965, from American University in Washington, D. C. he worked as a Peace Corps volunteer in Liberia until 1967. He graduated from the New York University School of Law in 1970, and has worked for 25 years as a defense attorney. He started to work in 1970 at the Oregon Court of Appeals and he published his first story, a short story titled The Girl in the Yellow Bikini, in 1974, and became a full-time writer in 1996. He has written 12 books as of January 2007 and he lists as his favourite writer Joseph Conrad, and among his favourite books War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy and Stone City by Mitchell Smith. Philip Margolin was married to Doreen Stamm in 1968 and they had two children, Ami and Daniel. Doreen, also an attorney, died from cancer in January 2007. Phillip Margolin is also the president of Chess for Success, an organisation dedicated to helping children develop skills necessary for success in school. He has also co-authored Vanishing Acts with his daughter Ami Margolin Rome

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Brad Meltzer
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Brad Meltzer is an American political thriller novelist, non-fiction writer, TV show creator and comic book author. Brad Meltzer was born on April 1,1970 and he grew up in Brooklyn, New York, and then moved to South Florida, where he graduated from North Miami Beach Senior High School in 1988. He earned a degree from the University of Michigan, the first in his family to attend a four-year college. Afterwards Meltzer graduated from Columbia Law School, and was selected to the Columbia Law Review, Meltzer has had books on the bestseller list for Fiction, Non-Fiction, Advice, Children’s Books and comic books, for which he won the Eisner Award. Meltzer is also responsible for helping find the missing 9/11 flag that the firefighters raised at Ground Zero, using his TV show, Brad Meltzers Lost History, he told the story of the missing flag and asked Americans for their help in returning it. Four days later, a former Marine walked into a station in Everett, Washington, said he saw Meltzers TV show. Meltzer recently unveiled the flag at the 9/11 Museum in New York, known for his thorough research, Meltzer counts former Presidents Bill Clinton and George H. W. Bush as fans, and both have helped him with his research. S. Meltzer has worked with organizations throughout Florida to promote literacy within the State. Meltzer has worked in the past with Florida Family Literacy Initiative, Meltzer was one of four authors selected to entertain at Barbara Bushs 90th birthday party in 2015. Meltzer is responsible for helping save the life of his 11th grade history teacher. When his teacher told Meltzer she was sick and needed a new kidney, Meltzer asked his 100,000 Facebook fans to find her a new kidney and in the process, helped save her life. During Star Wars Night at the 2015 Marlins/Mets baseball game, Meltzer threw out the first pitch of the game and his first novel, Fraternity, garnered 24 rejection letters, but he then sold his second novel, The Tenth Justice, while in law school. In 1994, he co-wrote the original swearing-in oath that is taken by AmeriCorps members, in 1996, Meltzer created one of the earliest author websites for his first published novel, The Tenth Justice. Over the years, every one of Meltzers thrillers has made The New York Times bestseller list. In 2015, in researching his novel The Presidents Shadow, Meltzer revealed that while Ronald Reagan was President and this was confirmed by a Secret Service agent. His popular “Culper Ring” novels, of which The President’s Shadow is the third, imagine that a spy ring, founded in real life by George Washington. His 2013 novel, The Fifth Assassin, follows a killer bent on re-creating the crimes of presidential assassinations from John Wilkes Booth to Lee Harvey Oswald. In May 2010, Meltzer released his first nonfiction book, Heroes For My Son, the book is part of a two-book deal with Meltzers publisher, and stated in a May 2010 interview that he was working on Heroes for My Daughter

15.
Lisa Scottoline
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Lisa Scottoline is an American author of legal thrillers. Born in Philadelphia, Scottoline earned a degree, as well as a law degree from the University of Pennsylvania. After the birth of her daughter she left the law firm and started writing and her novels have been translated into 25 languages. Since March 2007 Scottoline has been writing the Chick Wit column for The Philadelphia Inquirer, a collection of her columns was compiled in a book entitled Why My Third Husband Will Be A Dog, The Amazing Adventures of an Ordinary Woman and published on November 24,2009. Everywhere That Mary Went Legal Tender Rough Justice Mistaken Identity Moment of Truth - #10 on NYT Bestseller list, the Vendetta Defense - #7 on NYT Bestseller list and on the list for five weeks. Courting Trouble - #8 on NYT Bestseller list and on the list for three weeks, dead Ringer - #5 on NYT Bestseller list and on the list for four weeks. Killer Smile - #14 on NYT Bestseller list and on the list for two weeks, lady Killer - #4 on NYT Bestseller list and on the list for four weeks. Think Twice - #4 on NYT Bestseller list and on the list for three weeks, accused, A Rosato & Associates Novel. Betrayed, A Rosato & DiNunzio Novel, corrupted, A Rosato & DiNunzio Novel. St. Martins Press,10 October 2015, ISBN 978-1-250-02793-1 Damaged, exposed, A Rosato & DiNunzio Novel. Final Appeal - Winner of the 1995 Edgar Award for Best Paperback Original Mystery, running From the Law Devils Corner - #9 on NYT Bestseller list and on the list for two weeks. Dirty Blonde - #5 on NYT Bestseller list and on the list for four weeks, daddys Girl - #3 on NYT Bestseller list for two consecutive weeks and on the list for three weeks. Appeared in the 2007 Readers Digest Select Editions Volume 294 - #6, - #2 on NYT Bestseller list and on the list for three weeks. - #7 on NYT Bestseller list and on the list for four weeks, come Home - #4 on NYT Bestseller list and on the list for three weeks. - #2 on NYT Bestseller list and on the list for three weeks, keep Quiet Every Fifteen Minutes Most Wanted One Perfect Lie Naked Came the Phoenix Natural Suspect The Chopin Manuscript - The first book of the Harold Middleton series. Initial release was as an audiobook, the Copper Bracelet - The second book of the Harold Middleton series

16.
Sheldon Siegel
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Sheldon Siegel is an American novelist and author best known for his works of modern legal drama. He is also the author of the thriller novel The Terrorist Next Door featuring Chicago homicide detectives David Gold and his books have been translated into a dozen languages and sold millions of copies worldwide. He specializes in corporate and securities law with the San Francisco office of the law firm of Sheppard, Mullin. Sheldon began writing his first book, Special Circumstances, on a computer during his daily commute on the ferry from Marin County to San Francisco. Sheldon lives in the San Francisco area with his wife, Linda and he is a lifelong fan of the Chicago Bears, White Sox, Bulls and Blackhawks. He is currently working on his ninth novel, Sheldon welcomes your comments and feedback. For more information on Sheldon, book signings, the making of his books, Special Circumstances Incriminating Evidence Criminal Intent Final Verdict The Confession Judgment Day Perfect Alibi The Terrorist Next Door Official Site of Sheldon Siegel

17.
Arthur Cheney Train
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Train was born in Boston, Massachusetts. His father was lawyer Charles Russell Train, who served for years as attorney general of Massachusetts. Train graduated with a BA from Harvard University in 1896 and LLB from Harvard Law School in 1899, in 1897, Train married Ethel Kissam. Ethel died in 1923 and Train married Helen Coster Gerard, with whom he had one child, in January 1901, Train became assistant in the office of the New York County District Attorney. In 1904 he started his career with the publication of the short story The Maximilian Diamond in Leslies Monthly. He ran the two careers in parallel until 1908 when he left the District Attorneys office to open a law practice in the Mutual Life Building at 34 Nassau Street in New York City. His 1907 novel, Mortmain, was one of the earliest works in the alien hand syndrome genre and was adapted into a 1915 film of the name that is now lost. From 1915 to 1922, Train was in practice as a lawyer with Charles Albert Perkins while continuing to write, not just novels but short stories, plays. In 1919, he created the character of Mr. Ephraim Tutt. Train wrote dozens of stories about Tutt in the Saturday Evening Post, the fictional Ephraim Tutt became the best known lawyer in America, particularly after the appearance of Yankee Lawyer, an immensely popular book that purported to be Tutts autobiography. Train also coauthored two science fiction novels with eminent physicist Robert W. Wood, after 1922, he devoted himself to writing. True Stories of Crime from the District Attorneys Office, true Stories of Celebrated Crimes from the District Attorneys Office. C Q, or, In the Wireless House, the Man Who Rocked the Earth. Garden City, Doubleday, Page & Co, garden City, Doubleday, Page & Co. The Goldfish, Being the Confessions of a Successful Man, the Adventures of Ephraim Tutt, Attorney and Counsellor-at-Law. Paper Profits, A Novel of Wall Street, Mr. Tutts Case Book Being a Collection of His Most Celebrated Trials as Reported and Compiled. Yankee lawyer, The Autobiography of Ephraim Tutt, Mr. Tutt at his Best, A Collection of his Most Famous Cases. Schmid, D. Train, Arthur, American National Biography, Oxford University Press,21, 799-800, ISBN 0-19-520635-5 Train, A

18.
Scott Turow
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Scott Frederick Turow is an American author and lawyer. Turow has written nine fiction and two books, which have been translated into more than 40 languages and sold more than 30 million copies. Films have been based on several of his books, Turow was born in Chicago, to a family of Russian Jewish descent. He attended New Trier High School, and graduated from Amherst College in 1970 and he received an Edith Mirrielees Fellowship to Stanford University’s Creative Writing Center, where he attended from 1970 to 1972. In 1971, he married Annette Weisberg, a painter and he married Adriane Glazier in a private ceremony on May 29,2016. The officiant at the wedding was humorist Dave Barry, Scott Turow later became a Jones Lecturer at Stanford, serving until 1975, when he entered Harvard Law School. In 1977, Turow wrote One L, a book about his first year at law school, after earning his Juris Doctor degree cum laude in 1978, Turow became an Assistant U. S. Attorney in Chicago, serving in that position until 1986. There he prosecuted several high-profile corruption cases, including the tax case of state Attorney General William Scott. Turow also was lead counsel in Operation Greylord, the prosecution of Illinois judicial corruption cases. All four became bestsellers, and Turow won multiple literary awards, in 1990, Turow was featured on the June 11 cover of Time, which described him as Bard of the Litigious Age. In 1995, Canadian author Derek Lundy published a biography of Turow, entitled Scott Turow, in the 1990s a British publisher bracketed Turow’s work with that of Margaret Atwood and John Irving, republished in the series Bloomsbury Modern Library. Turow was elected the president of the Authors Guild in 2010 and was president from 1997 to 1998. As the Authors Guild president he has criticized for his copyright maximalist. Turow has often responded that he is not against E-books and does the majority of his own reading electronically and his goal, he said often, is to protect writing as a livelihood. From 1997 to 1998 Turow was a member of the U. S. Senate Nominations Commission for the Northern District of Illinois, which recommends federal judicial appointments. Turow is a partner of the law firm Dentons having been a partner of one of its constituents. Turow works pro bono in most of his cases, including a 1995 case where he won the release of Alejandro Hernandez and he was also appointed to the commission considering the reform of the Illinois death penalty by former Governor George Ryan. He was the first Chair of Illinois Executive Ethics Commission and he served as one of the 14 members of the Commission appointed in March,2000, by Illinois Governor George Ryan to consider reform of the capital punishment system

19.
Michael Clayton (film)
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Michael Clayton is a 2007 American legal thriller film written and directed by Tony Gilroy and starring George Clooney, Tom Wilkinson, Tilda Swinton and Sydney Pollack. Michael Clayton is a fixer for a prestigious New York City law firm, using his connections, although he is paid well enough, he is divorced, is addicted to gambling, and his personal life is in a shambles. After leaving a clandestine poker game and dealing with a wealthy clients hit and run case, Michael drives despondently and stops at a remote field. As he climbs the hill to look at them, his car explodes, the narrative moves back to four days earlier. Michael is $75,000 in debt from a restaurant investment he entered with his brother Timmy, which collapsed when Timmy used the restaurants funds to fuel his drug habits. Michael, having gone to a shark to raise the money, refuses to give up on his brother and is held responsible for the debt. Michael arrives in Milwaukee and bails Arthur out of jail, after finding out hes no longer taking his medication, Karen brings this to the attention of U-Norths CEO Don Jeffries, who puts her in contact with two hit men secretly on retainer. She contracts them to follow Arthur and bug his apartment and phone, when they report that Arthur is building a case to expose his own client, Karen approves of their taking drastic measures. The men murder Arthur in such a way as to make it look like a drug overdose or suicide. She tells him no one knew of her conversations with Arthur, not even her attorney. There is also a copy of Realm and Conquest, a novel which Michaels son Henry had recommended to Arthur. He finds a receipt from a copy store being used as a bookmark, Michael is caught in the apartment and arrested for trespassing, but Gene bails him out. Using the receipt, Michael discovers that Arthur had ordered 3000 copies of the confidential U-North document, Michael takes one copy with him, the two hit men inform Karen. Michael is about to show his boss Marty Bach what he has discovered, an additional confidentiality agreement allows Michael to realize that his boss already knows about U-Norths cover-up. One of the hit men rigs Michaels car with a bomb, while at a poker game, Michael receives a phone call summoning him to meet the hit-and-run client in a remote part of Westchester County, as seen at the start of the movie. He is being followed by the two men, who have trouble trailing him, but eventually get close enough to detonate the radio-controlled bomb. However, Michael had left the car to admire the horses in the field, after the hit men drive off, Michael approaches the fire, throws his personal effects into the burning car, and escapes into the woods. Later, at a U-North board meeting at a Manhattan hotel and she leaves the room to let the board of directors deliberate

20.
Academy Awards
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The various category winners are awarded a copy of a golden statuette, officially called the Academy Award of Merit, which has become commonly known by its nickname Oscar. The awards, first presented in 1929 at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, are overseen by AMPAS, the awards ceremony was first broadcast on radio in 1930 and televised for the first time in 1953. It is now live in more than 200 countries and can be streamed live online. The Academy Awards ceremony is the oldest worldwide entertainment awards ceremony and its equivalents – the Emmy Awards for television, the Tony Awards for theater, and the Grammy Awards for music and recording – are modeled after the Academy Awards. The 89th Academy Awards ceremony, honoring the best films of 2016, were held on February 26,2017, at the Dolby Theatre, in Los Angeles, the ceremony was hosted by Jimmy Kimmel and was broadcast on ABC. A total of 3,048 Oscars have been awarded from the inception of the award through the 88th, the first Academy Awards presentation was held on May 16,1929, at a private dinner function at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel with an audience of about 270 people. The post-awards party was held at the Mayfair Hotel, the cost of guest tickets for that nights ceremony was $5. Fifteen statuettes were awarded, honoring artists, directors and other participants in the industry of the time. The ceremony ran for 15 minutes, winners were announced to media three months earlier, however, that was changed for the second ceremony in 1930. Since then, for the rest of the first decade, the results were given to newspapers for publication at 11,00 pm on the night of the awards. The first Best Actor awarded was Emil Jannings, for his performances in The Last Command and he had to return to Europe before the ceremony, so the Academy agreed to give him the prize earlier, this made him the first Academy Award winner in history. With the fourth ceremony, however, the system changed, for the first six ceremonies, the eligibility period spanned two calendar years. At the 29th ceremony, held on March 27,1957, until then, foreign-language films had been honored with the Special Achievement Award. The 74th Academy Awards, held in 2002, presented the first Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, since 1973, all Academy Awards ceremonies always end with the Academy Award for Best Picture. The Academy also awards Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting, see also § Awards of Merit categories The best known award is the Academy Award of Merit, more popularly known as the Oscar statuette. The five spokes represent the branches of the Academy, Actors, Writers, Directors, Producers. The model for the statuette is said to be Mexican actor Emilio El Indio Fernández, sculptor George Stanley sculpted Cedric Gibbons design. The statuettes presented at the ceremonies were gold-plated solid bronze

21.
80th Academy Awards
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During the ceremony, AMPAS presented Academy Awards in 24 categories. The ceremony was televised in the United States by ABC, and produced by Gil Cates and directed by Louis J, Actor Jon Stewart hosted the show for the second time, having previously presided over the 78th ceremony held in 2006. Two weeks earlier in a gala at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Beverly Hills, California held on February 9, No Country for Old Men won the most awards of the ceremony with four including Best Picture. The telecast garnered under 32 million viewers, making it the least watched Oscar broadcast since 1974, the nominations were announced on January 22,2008, at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills, California by Sid Ganis, president of the Academy, and actress Kathy Bates. No Country for Old Men and There Will Be Blood tied for the most nominations with eight each, the winners were announced during the award ceremony of February 24,2008. Best Director winners Ethan and Joel Coen became the pair of directors to win the award for the same film. Jerome Robbins and Robert Wise first accomplished this feat for co-directing 1961s West Side Story, for only the second time in Oscar history, all four acting winners were born outside the United States. Daniel Day-Lewis became the person to win Best Actor twice. Cate Blanchett became the performer to receive double acting nominations in the same year. At age 82, Best Supporting Actor nominee Hal Holbrook was the oldest male acting nominee in Oscar history, Robert F. Boyle became the oldest recipient of the Academy Honorary award at the age of 98. Winners are listed first, highlighted in boldface, and indicated with a double dagger, Robert F. Boyle — In recognition of one of cinemas great careers in art direction. The following individuals presented awards or performed musical numbers, in September 2007, the Academy hired Gil Cates to oversee production of the telecast for a record 14th time. Ganis explained his decision to hire Cates as producer stating, Hes so talented…so creative and inventive, all of that will again translate into a night that people cant wait to experience. Immediately, Cates selected actor, comedian, and talk-show host Jon Stewart as host of the 2008 ceremony, Jon was a terrific host for the 78th Awards, Cates said about Stewart in a press release. He is smart, quick, funny, loves movies and is a great guy, what else could one ask for. Furthermore, the 2007–08 Writers Guild of America strike affected the telecast, the material could have been used, as the denial only affected the conditions under which the clips are shown. Previously, the 60th ceremony held in 1988 occurred 37 days after that years writers strike began, at the time, material was already completed in anticipation for the strike, and actors were in full attendance of the ceremony. In anticipation that the strike would continue through Oscar night, AMPAS developed a Plan B show that would not have included actors accepting their awards

22.
Capcom
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Capcom Co. Ltd. or Capcom, is a Japanese video game developer and publisher. Originally established in 1979, it has become an international enterprise with subsidiaries in North America, Europe. Capcoms first predecessor, I. R. M Corporation, was founded on May 30,1979 by Kenzo Tsujimoto, Tsujimoto named I. R. M after his other company Irem Corporation which he founded earlier in 1974 and remained with until 1983. In January 1989, the old affiliate company Capcom Co. Ltd. merged with Sambi Co. Ltd. resulting in the current Japanese branch. While Capcoms first product was the coin-operated Little League from July 1983, its first real video game, since then, Capcom has created 15 multi-million-selling game series, the most successful of which is Resident Evil. Capcom has been noted as the last major publisher to be committed to 2D games, the companys continued commitment to the Super Nintendo Entertainment System as its platform of choice caused them to lag behind other leading publishers in developing 3D-capable arcade boards. In 1994, Capcom adapted its Street Fighter series of fighting games into a film of the same name, while commercially successful, the production received almost universal criticism. A2002 adaptation of its Resident Evil series faced similar criticism but was successful in theaters. The company sees films as a way to build sales for its video games, Capcom partnered with Nyu Media in 2011 to publish and distribute the Japanese independent games that Nyu localized into the English language. In August 27,2014, Capcom filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Koei Tecmo Games at the Osaka District Court for 980 million yen in damage, Capcom claimed Koei Tecmo Games infringed a patent it obtained in 2002 regarding play feature of the video games. Later, games developed internally used to be created by several numbered Production Studios, in addition to these internal teams, Capcom also commissions outside development studios to ensure a steady output of titles. It also has the Ueno Facility, an office in Iga. The international Capcom Group currently encompasses 15 subsidiaries in Japan, North America, Europe, affiliated companies include Koko Capcom Co. Ltd. in South Korea, Street Fighter Film, LLC in the United States, and Dellgamadas Co. Ltd. Suleputer, a marketing and music label established in cooperation with Sony Music Entertainment Intermedia in 1998, publishes CDs, DVDs. Capcom also owns numerous arcade game known as Plaza Capcom, including one in Narita, Futtsu. An annual private media summit called Captivate, renamed from Gamers Day in 2008, is used as a platform for new game. Capcom launched its Street Fighter franchise in 1987, the series of fighting games are among the most popular in their genre, and have sold over 30 million units. That same year,1987, the company introduced its Mega Man series, selling nearly 30 million units, the series serves as Capcoms flagship franchise

23.
Ace Attorney
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Ace Attorney, known in Japan as Gyakuten Saiban, is a series of visual novel adventure video games developed by Capcom. The first entry in the series, Phoenix Wright, Ace Attorney, was released in 2001, since then, nine further games have been released. Additionally, the series has seen adaptations in the form of an action film and an anime. The cases all last a maximum of three days, with the determining the outcome based on evidence presented by the defense attorney. The series was created by the writer and director Shu Takumi, while the original Japanese versions of the games are set in Japan, the series localizations are set in the United States, though retaining Japanese cultural influence. The Ace Attorney series launched in Japan with the Game Boy Advance game Phoenix Wright, Ace Attorney in 2001, the series currently consists of six main series games and four spin-offs. Phoenix Wright, Ace Attorney is the first entry in the series and it was originally released for the Game Boy Advance in 2001 in Japan, it has also been released for the Nintendo DS in 2005, Microsoft Windows in 2008, and the Wii and iOS in 2009. Phoenix Wright, Ace Attorney − Justice for All is the entry in the series. It was originally released for the Game Boy Advance in 2002 in Japan, it has also released for the Nintendo DS in 2006, Microsoft Windows in 2008. Phoenix Wright, Ace Attorney − Trials and Tribulations is the entry in the series. It was originally released for the Game Boy Advance in 2004 in Japan, it has also released for Microsoft Windows in 2006, the Nintendo DS in 2007. Apollo Justice, Ace Attorney is the entry in the series. It was released for the Nintendo DS in 2007 in Japan and in 2008 in the West, Phoenix Wright, Ace Attorney − Dual Destinies is the fifth entry in the main series. It was originally released for the Nintendo 3DS in 2013 in Japan, North America and Europe, outside of Japan, an iOS version was released in 2014 in Japan and the West. Phoenix Wright, Ace Attorney − Spirit of Justice is the entry in the main series. It was released for the Nintendo 3DS in 2016 in Japan, North America, like Dual Destinies, it was given a digital-only release outside Japan. Ace Attorney Investigations, Miles Edgeworth is the first entry in the Investigations spin-off series and it was released for the Nintendo DS in 2009 in Japan and in 2010 in the West. Ace Attorney Investigations 2 is the entry in the Investigations series

24.
Adventure game
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An adventure game is a video game in which the player assumes the role of protagonist in an interactive story driven by exploration and puzzle-solving. The genres focus on story allows it to draw heavily from other narrative-based media, literature and film, many adventure games are designed for a single player, since this emphasis on story and character makes multi-player design difficult. Initial adventure games developed in the 1970s and early 1980s were text-based, within the Asian markets, adventure games continue to be popular in the form of visual novels, which make up nearly 70% of PC games released in Japan. The Asian markets have found markets for adventure games for portable and mobile gaming devices. The video game genre is defined by its gameplay, unlike the literary genre, which is defined by the subject it addresses. Essential elements of the genre include storytelling, exploration, and puzzle solving, Adventure games have been described as puzzles embedded in a narrative framework, where games involve narrative content that a player unlocks piece by piece over time. While the puzzles that players encounter through the story can be arbitrary, combat and action challenges are limited or absent in adventure games, thus distinguishing them from action games. In the book Andrew Rollings and Ernest Adams on Game Design, only that combat is not the primary activity. Some adventure games include a minigame from another video game genre. Hybrid action-adventure games blend action and adventure games throughout the experience, incorporating more physical challenges than pure adventure games. This definition is hard to apply, however, with debate among designers about which games are action games. Adventure games are distinct from role-playing video games that involve action, team-building. Adventure games lack the numeric rules or relationships seen in role-playing games and these games lack any skill system, combat, or an opponent to be defeated through strategy and tactics. However, some hybrid games exist here, where role-playing games with strong narrative, finally, adventure games are classified separately from puzzle video games. Although an adventure game may involve puzzle-solving, they involve a player-controlled avatar in an interactive story. Adventure games contain a variety of puzzles, decoding messages, finding and using items, opening locked doors, solving a puzzle will unlock access to new areas in the game world, and reveal more of the game story. Logic puzzles, where mechanical devices are designed with interfaces to test a players deductive reasoning skills, are common. Others have been criticized for requiring players to guess, either by clicking on the right pixel

25.
Video game
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A video game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface to generate visual feedback on a video device such as a TV screen or computer monitor. The word video in video game referred to a raster display device. Some theorists categorize video games as an art form, but this designation is controversial, the electronic systems used to play video games are known as platforms, examples of these are personal computers and video game consoles. These platforms range from large mainframe computers to small handheld computing devices, the input device used for games, the game controller, varies across platforms. Common controllers include gamepads, joysticks, mouse devices, keyboards, the touchscreens of mobile devices, and buttons, or even, with the Kinect sensor, a persons hands and body. Players typically view the game on a screen or television or computer monitor, or sometimes on virtual reality head-mounted display goggles. There are often game sound effects, music and, in the 2010s, some games in the 2000s include haptic, vibration-creating effects, force feedback peripherals and virtual reality headsets. In the 2010s, the game industry is of increasing commercial importance, with growth driven particularly by the emerging Asian markets and mobile games. As of 2015, video games generated sales of USD74 billion annually worldwide, early games used interactive electronic devices with various display formats. The earliest example is from 1947—a Cathode ray tube Amusement Device was filed for a patent on 25 January 1947, by Thomas T. Goldsmith Jr. and Estle Ray Mann, and issued on 14 December 1948, as U. S. Written by MIT students Martin Graetz, Steve Russell, and Wayne Wiitanens on a DEC PDP-1 computer in 1961, and the hit ping pong-style Pong, used the DEC PDP-1s vector display to have two spaceships battle each other. In 1971, Computer Space, created by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney, was the first commercially sold and it used a black-and-white television for its display, and the computer system was made of 74 series TTL chips. The game was featured in the 1973 science fiction film Soylent Green, Computer Space was followed in 1972 by the Magnavox Odyssey, the first home console. Modeled after a late 1960s prototype console developed by Ralph H. Baer called the Brown Box and these were followed by two versions of Ataris Pong, an arcade version in 1972 and a home version in 1975 that dramatically increased video game popularity. The commercial success of Pong led numerous other companies to develop Pong clones and their own systems, the game inspired arcade machines to become prevalent in mainstream locations such as shopping malls, traditional storefronts, restaurants, and convenience stores. The game also became the subject of articles and stories on television and in newspapers and magazines. Space Invaders was soon licensed for the Atari VCS, becoming the first killer app, the term platform refers to the specific combination of electronic components or computer hardware which, in conjunction with software, allows a video game to operate. The term system is commonly used

26.
Film genre
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A film genre is a motion picture category based on similarities in either the narrative elements or the emotional response to the film. Most theories of film genre are borrowed from literary genre criticism, the basic genres include fiction and documentary, from which subgenres have emerged, such as docufiction and docudrama. Other subgenres include the courtroom and trial-focused drama known as the legal drama, types of fiction which may seem unrelated can also be combined to form hybrid subgenres, such as the melding of horror and comedy in the Evil Dead films. Other popular combinations are the comedy and the action comedy film. Films can also be classified by the setting, theme, topic, mood, format, the setting is the environment where the story and action takes place. The theme or topic refers to the issues or concepts that the film revolves around, the mood is the emotional tone of the film. Format refers to the way the film was shot or the manner of presentation, additional ways of categorizing film genres is by the target audience or by type of production. American film historian Janet Staiger states that the genre of a film can be defined in four ways, the idealist method judges films by predetermined standards. The empirical method identifies the genre of a film by comparing it to a list of films already deemed to fall within a certain genre, the apriori method uses common generic elements which are identified in advance. The social conventions method of identifying the genre of a film is based on the cultural consensus within society. Martin Loop contends that Hollywood films are not pure genres, because most Hollywood movies blend the love-oriented plot of the genre with other genres. Many films cross into multiple genres, recently, film theorist Robert Stam challenged whether genres really exist, or whether they are merely made up by critics. Stam has questioned whether genres really out there in the world or are they really the construction of analysts, as well, he has asked whether there is a. finite taxonomy of genres or are they in principle infinite. And whether genres are. timeless essences ephemeral, time-bound entities, Stam has also asked whether genre analysis should aim at being descriptive or prescriptive. While some genres are based on content, other are borrowed from literature or from other media. Some are performer-based or budget-based, while others are based on status, racial identity, location. Many genres have built-in audiences and corresponding publications that support them, for example, horror films have a well-established fanbase that reads horror magazines such as Fangoria. Films that are difficult to categorize into a genre are often less successful, as such, film genres are also useful in the areas of marketing, film criticism and the analysis of consumption

27.
Action film
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Action film is a film genre in which the protagonist or protagonists end up in a series of challenges that typically include violence, extended fighting, physical feats, and frantic chases. Advancements in CGI have made it cheaper and easier to create action sequences, while action has long been a recurring component in films, the action film genre began to develop in the 1970s along with the increase of stunts and special effects. The genre is associated with the thriller and adventure film genres. Some historians consider The Great Train Robbery to be the first action film, during the 1920s and 1930s, action-based films were often swashbuckling adventure films in which actors, such as Douglas Fairbanks, wielded swords in period pieces or Westerns. The 1940s and 1950s saw action in a new form through war, the film, along with a war-adventure called The Guns of Navarone, inspired producers Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman to invest in their own spy-adventure, based on the novels of Ian Fleming. The long-running success of the James Bond films or series introduced a staple of the action film. Such larger-than-life characters were a veritable “one-man army”, able to dispatch villainous masterminds after cutting through their disposable henchmen in increasingly creative ways, such heroes are ready with one-liners, puns, and dry quips. The Bond films also used fast cutting, car chases, fist fights, a variety of weapons and gadgets, Dirty Harry essentially lifted its star, Clint Eastwood, out of his cowboy typecasting, and framed him as the archetypal hero of the urban action film. In many countries, restrictions on language, adult content, and violence had loosened up, in the 1970s, martial-arts films from Hong Kong became popular with Western audiences and inspired big budget films such as Bruce Lees Enter the Dragon. Chuck Norris blended martial arts with cops and robbers in films such as Good Guys Wear Black, from Japan, Sonny Chiba starred in his first martial arts movie in 1973 called the Karate Kiba. His breakthrough international hit was The Street Fighter series, which established him as the reigning Japanese martial arts actor in international cinema and he also played the role of Mas Oyama in Champion of Death, Karate Bearfighter, and Karate for Life. Chibas action films were not only bounded by martial arts, but also action thriller, jidaigeki, in the 1980s Hollywood produced many big budget action blockbusters with actors such as Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Lorenzo Lamas, Michael Dudikoff, Charles Bronson and Bruce Willis. Steven Spielberg and George Lucas paid their homage to the Bond-inspired style with Raiders of the Lost Ark, in 1982, veteran actor Nick Nolte and rising comedian Eddie Murphy broke box office records with the action-comedy 48 Hrs. credited as the first buddy-cop movie. That same year, Sylvester Stallone starred in First Blood, the first installment in the Rambo film series made the character John Rambo a pop culture icon. 1984 saw the beginning of the Terminator starring Linda Hamilton and Arnold Schwarzenegger and this story provides one of the grittiest roles for a woman in action and Hamilton was required to put in extensive effort to develop a strong physique. The 1988 film, Die Hard, was influential on the development of the action genre. In the film, Bruce Willis plays a New York police detective who becomes embroiled in a terrorist take-over of a Los Angeles office building high-rise. The film set a pattern for a host of imitators, like Under Siege and Sudden Death, by the end of the 1980s, the influence of the successful action film could be felt in almost every genre

28.
Hong Kong action cinema
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Hong Kong action cinema is the principal source of the Hong Kong film industrys global fame. In recent years, the flow has reversed somewhat, with American and European action films being heavily influenced by Hong Kong genre conventions, the 1970s saw a resurgence in kung fu films during the rise and sudden death of international superstar Bruce Lee. The innovative work of directors and producers like Tsui Hark and John Woo introduced further variety, an exodus by many leading figures to Hollywood in the 1990s coincided with a downturn in the industry. The signature contribution to action cinema from the Chinese-speaking world is the martial arts film, the genre emerged first in Chinese popular literature. The early 20th century saw an explosion of what were called wuxia novels and these were tales of heroic, sword-wielding warriors, often featuring mystical or fantasy elements. This genre was quickly seized on by early Chinese films, particularly in the capital of the time. Starting in the 1920s, wuxia titles, often adapted from novels were hugely popular, the boom came to an end in the 1930s, caused by official opposition from cultural and political elites, especially the Kuomintang government, who saw it as promoting superstition and violent anarchy. Wuxia filmmaking was picked up in Hong Kong, at the time a British colony with a liberal economy and culture. The first martial arts film in Cantonese, the dominant Chinese spoken language of Hong Kong, was The Adorned Pavilion, the industry continued the wuxia tradition in Cantonese B movies and serials, although the more prestigious Mandarin-language cinema generally ignored the genre. A countertradition to the wuxia films emerged in the kung fu movies that were produced at this time. These movies emphasized more authentic, down-to-earth and unarmed combat over the swordplay and mysticism of wuxia. In the second half of the 1960s, the eras biggest studio, Shaw Brothers, inaugurated a new generation of films, starting with Xu Zenghongs Temple of the Red Lotus. These Mandarin productions were more lavish and in colour, their style was less fantastical and more intense, with stronger and more acrobatic violence. They were influenced by imported samurai movies from Japan and by the wave of New School wuxia novels by authors like Jin Yong and Liang Yusheng that started in the 1950s. The signature directors of the period were Chang Cheh with One-Armed Swordsman and Golden Swallow, Hu soon left Shaw Brothers to pursue his own vision of wuxia with independent productions in Taiwan, such as the enormously successful Dragon Inn. Chang stayed on and remained the Shaws prolific star director into the early 1980s, the early 1970s saw wuxia giving way to a new, grittier and more graphic iteration of the kung fu movie, which came to dominate through the decade and into the early 1980s. Seriously trained martial artists such as Ti Lung and Gordon Liu became some of the top stars as increasing proportions of running times were devoted to combat setpieces, Chinese Boxer, starring and directed by Jimmy Wang Yu, is widely credited with launching the kung fu boom. But remaining at the vanguard, at least initially, were Shaw Brothers, changs Vengeance was another of the first trendsetters and his dozens of contributions included The Boxer from Shantung, Five Deadly Venoms and Crippled Avengers

29.
Art film
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An art film is typically a serious, independent film aimed at a niche market rather than a mass market audience. Film scholar David Bordwell describes art cinema as a film genre, art film producers usually present their films at specialty theatres and film festivals. The term art film is more widely used in the United States, the UK and Australia than in Europe. A certain degree of experience and knowledge are required to understand or appreciate such films. One mid-1990s art film was called largely a cerebral experience that one enjoys because of what you know about film and this contrasts sharply with mainstream blockbuster films, which are geared more towards escapism and pure entertainment. Since art films have small initial investment costs, they only need to appeal to a portion of the mainstream viewing audiences to become financially viable. An art film may also be called an art movie, specialty film, art-house film, or, in the collective sense, there is overlap between the categories of art film, independent film and experimental film. The antecedents of art films included D. W. Griffiths Intolerance, the critics of the outside world praised these films. Art films were influenced by films by Spanish avant-garde creators, such as Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dalí. Cinéma Pur, a 1920s and 1930s French avant-garde film movement also influenced the development of the idea of art film, the cinema pur film movement included Dada artists, such as Man Ray, René Clair, and Marcel Duchamp. The Dadaists used film to transcend narrative conventions, bourgeois traditions, pure Cinema was influenced by such German absolute filmmakers as Hans Richter, Walter Ruttmann, and Viking Eggeling. Richter claimed that his 1921 film, Rhythmus 21, was the first abstract film ever created, nevertheless, Richters film Rhythmus 21 is considered an important early abstract film. William Siska argues that Italian neorealist films from the mid- to late-1940s, such as Open City, Paisa, Films shown in these art cinemas included. British, foreign-language, and independent American films, as well as documentaries, Films such as Rossellinis Open City and Mackendricks Tight Little Island, Bicycle Thieves and The Red Shoes were shown to substantial U. S. audiences. In the late 1950s, French filmmakers began to produce films that were influenced by Italian Neorealism and classical Hollywood cinema, auteur theory holds that the director is the author of his films, with a personal signature visible from film to film. The French New Wave movement continued into the 1960s, during the 1960s, the term art film began to be much more widely used in the United States than in Europe. In the U. S. the term is defined very broadly, to include foreign-language auteur films, independent films, experimental films, documentaries. In the 1960s art film became a euphemism in the U. S. for racy Italian, by the 1970s, the term was used to describe sexually explicit European films with artistic structure such as the Swedish film I Am Curious

Erle Stanley Gardner (July 17, 1889 – March 11, 1970) was an American lawyer and author. He is best known for the Perry …

Erle Stanley Gardner in 1966

The First National Bank Building in Ventura, where Gardner wrote drafts for first Perry Mason novels

Perry Mason executive producer Gail Patrick Jackson and Erle Stanley Gardner speak with Hollywood columnist Norma Lee Browning during filming of the last episode, "The Case of the Final Fade-Out" (1966)